Cubs rally past Tornadoes in regional semifinal showdown

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Sports

May 19, 2017 - 12:00 AM

ERIE — No matter what, Humboldt senior Daylon Splane has always answered the bell for coach Mike Miller’s Cubs this season.
Splane shifted from his role as the team’s No. 2 starter last season — behind current Allen Community College pitcher Jake Haviland — to the top of the rotation where he has seen success. This season he has a 0.656 ERA.
On Thursday, he found himself in another new role.
The senior came out of the bullpen for only the second time this season and he did it not once, but twice in the regional semifinal game against Eureka.
“I had never done that before,” Splane said. “That was pretty new for me.”
The Tornadoes took a 3-1 lead over the top-seeded Cubs with a two-run top of the fifth inning.
The Cubs — who are the fifth ranked team in 3A — responded with a three-run fifth inning which included doubles from Splane and freshman Conor Haviland to surge in 4-3.
Miller decided not to risk missing the title game and inserted Splane to replace Rayce Hoepker on the mound.
“After we took the lead, I knew I had to come in and close the game,” Splane said.
After Splane struck out the side in the sixth inning, the Cub offense kept rolling.
“He came in and shut them down,” Miller said.
A five-run sixth inning padded the Humboldt lead to 9-3 and Miller felt comfortable enough with that margin to move Splane to shortstop and insert Josh Vanatta.
The Tornadoes found their offense against the Cubs’ No. 3 starter and had a walk, a double and two singles to begin the inning and cut the lead from 9-3 to 9-6.
Miller then executed a little-used move and switched Vanatta and Splane back.
“I just wanted to get that inning over and get on to the next game,” Splane said. “I had to go right after them.”
He wanted to avoid that switch back to save Splane’s pitch count for the championship game, but with the lead dwindling and no outs, Splane stepped back on the mound.
“We didn’t want to call on him twice, but we know we can always count on him,” Miller said. “We knew we had to get shutdown innings from him.”
A groundout and a pair of strikeouts ended the game as Splane finished with six batters faced, five strikeouts and 20 pitches.
Senior Rayce Hoepker picked up the win for the Cubs on the mound by throwing the first five frames.
He finished with three runs on 10 hits, but just one walk.
At the plate, Splane led the Cub attack with a 3-for-4 game and two runs scored.
Vanatta scored a team high three runs and junior Lance Daniels drove in a team-high three runs with two hits. Sophomore Dagen Goodner added two hits and two RBIs.

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